Just Her Luck (42 page)

Boot Scootin’ Nookie

"What's got you two all tied up in knots?" Sawyer chuckled, watching Ephraim and Bowen sulking, both in foul moods.

"They didn't get what they wanted, I'm guessin'," Phin managed to gasp out, roaring with laughter, ignoring Barb as she slapped at him uselessly, trying to get him to shut up.

"Well, as I live and breathe," a large man murmured as he ambled up to our table, dressed up in his cowboy finest.

I gasped and spluttered, pointing at him accusingly.

"You," I hissed, finger stabbing at the male, gorilla man nurse I'd seen at the doctor's office with Ruthie, the one with the cute little butt chin and big blue eyes.

"Name’s Eustice," he grinned, winking at me, "but,
you
, works just fine, sweet thang."

My hackles rose and I scowled up at him.

Sweet thang, huh?

"Listen up gorilla nurse, 'cause I'm only gonna say this once! Not even on a good day!"

Jep reached over and slapped Eustice on the back, guffawing at his stunned expression.

"Well, hell, woman! Aintcha even gonna let me spin ya around the dance floor a time or two before ya cut me loose! I aint even tried to cop a feel or nothin' and you're already givin' me the boot."

"And you won't be if you like your fingers attached to your body," Bowen warned the man menacingly, stabbing his fork into his steak.

"She's already spoken for, Tice, and I don't take kindly to poachin', so if that was why you came sauntering over here, you can just go on and-"

"Crawl back under whatever rock it is you crawled out of," Thatcher finished for Ephraim from right next to me, arm sliding up the back of the booth to rest by my shoulders.

The man, Eustice, held his hands up in surrender and smiled when he saw Ruthie.

"Hey, I remember you, purdy lady," he winked, giving her a boyish grin, "How's it hangin', Ms. F."

"Oh, you know, sweetie," she said flirtatiously, winking back at him, making me snort.

He looked over at me again and winked.

I glowered.

He paused and stared at me a moment longer, eyeing my face and hair.

"Oh!" he looked at Ruthie and then me, "You're the lady from the office that one day. You look a lot different without all that crap you usually have shootin' through ya. Much purdier like this, I'd say."

He eyed me up and down, making me feel uncomfortable under his steady gaze.

"Nobody cares what you have to say, Tice. So either sit down and shut up or go bother somebody else."

"Reeve!" Barb chastised him sweetly, "Be nice, he's your cousin!"

"Oh, my god! I knew it!" I fairly shouted.

Everyone looked over at me funny, not getting it at first.

"What?” I shifted a little in my seat, “I did. The minute his smarmy butt called Ruthie, I thought to myself, that gorilla man nurse must be a Harrison. He's too cocky and arrogant for his own good. And like some," I nudged Thatcher, "he seems to think he's god's gift to women."

Barb and Ruthie burst out into peals of laughter, and the men openly gaped at me.

"We do not!" Jep insisted.

"What?" Brayden asked finally, glancing up from his food.

Phin laughed at both of us, repeating some of the more fun things I'd tossed out there.

"Like hell!" Bowen grumbled.

"I do not!" Thatcher protested.

"Gorilla man nurse!" Sawyer busted up, "I love it! Oh, god..." He rested his forehead on the table as he busted a gut.

"It's not
that
funny," Eustice grumbled, rubbing his dark, thickly haired arms self-consciously.

"Oh, it has nothing to do with your arm hair, cowboy. Bowen's probably got more hair on his..."

"Hey! Who wants another drink?" Bowen bellowed out loudly over me.

"I wasn't going to say anything bad," I assured him.

Not really.

"Then why did you call me a gorilla, woman?" Eustice demanded, blue eyes fairly brimming with irritation, the big man suddenly self-conscious.

"You're built like a linebacker, I thought it was self-explanatory." I shrugged, brushing off his bristling.

"Oh." He immediately deflated his anger ball, puffing his chest out again as he grinned at me. "Do you happen to like line backers, Miss...?"

"Ephraim Harrison, the future Mrs. Ephraim Harrison, so keep yourself away from her."

My brows shot up my hairline and I rested my chin in my hands, staring pointedly at Ephraim.

"I never said I was going to marry you."

"Yes, you did," Ephraim said stubbornly, blue eyes hot and possessive as they rested on me.

You will not shiver under his gaze. You will not shiver under his gaze
, I chanted, trying to contain myself.

"You said if we'd made a baby the other night, you'd marry me. So, reason stands, if I knocked you up, I get to marry you, right?"

And there went the hot n yummy for him chills.

Bub-bye chills.

"Ephraim!" I sputtered, flustered.

"What?” he blinked at me, “It does, doesn't it, baby?"

"I'm going on the pill," I muttered, hiding my red face under a napkin.

"You should be real careful with talk like that 'E'," Phin warned, gesturing at his brothers, "Your mama said somethin' like that right before Brayden knocked her up with Reeve and that asshole got to marry her. You shoulda done the deed and then she couldn't a backed out on ya. Now you got another problem. How the hell do you know one of them other idiots isn't thinkin' the same thing as you?"

"I'm sitting right here!" I screeched, "And nobody is getting anybody knocked up! Oh, my god! Forget the pill, I'm getting fixed!"

"Like hell!" Thatcher cut in.

"Nobody asked you," I snapped.

"Your eggs did and my sperm said 'hell yeah!'"

"What?!! You arrogant... self-centered..."

"Ow! Shit, woman! Watch the face!" Thatcher cried, trying to dodge my balled up fists as I aimed for his perfect nose and dimpled cheeks.

"Phineas Riley Harrison! Those are my babies you're blurting intimate things about us to!" Barb cried, color high in her delicate pale face.

Brayden growled and slapped Phin upside the head, glaring at him as Barb tucked her smaller self up tight against his side, giving Phin a hurt look.

"Aw, baby, I'm sorry, I..." Phin tried to plead his case, but Brayden kept him back.

"Are they always like this?" Barry asked guardedly, watching everything go down, offering Eustice a basket of bread as they both settled in for the show.

"Pfft!" Eustice laughed, "These clowns are downright tame compared to some of the others.

"Then thank god for small favors," Barry sighed heavily, eyeing everyone thoughtfully.

****

After a few choice seating rearrangements, everyone eventually settled done, and more or less was mollified.

"Oh, look how sad they look, Vieve," Ruthie pointed out, trying to get me to look at Ephraim and Thatcher.

"Oh, yes," I muttered sarcastically, "they look very…
contrite
."

"They look like they're trying to figure out the fastest way to get your panties off," Sawyer chimed in, looking down at his brothers with nothing short of pity.

"That's not what they look like at all!" Ruthie adamantly protested.

"Are you into seein' your niece knocked up before you die, Auntie?" Barry asked bluntly, ducking my slap happy hand.

Reeve reached over and slapped him for me, making me smile smugly at the little bastard.

I’m not going to question his momentary lapse into semi-normalcy, I’m just going to enjoy naked tag Reeve while he makes another appearance.

I mean, who knows when asshole Reeve will show back up.

"Don't talk like that, Barry. I don't like it," I huffed.

"What are you gonna do?" Barry taunted, feeling ballsy today.

"I don't think you should be worrying about what she could do to ya, boy, and start worrying about what I might," Reeve remarked coldly in a scary, detached sort of voice.

Barry's eyes widened, but he didn't say anything.

I turned to Reeve, who was sitting next to me now instead of Thatcher.

"I don't need your help to whoop Barry's butt, Reeve. Butt out."

"I'll put my butt wherever I want," he grumbled, daring me to argue with him.

I grinned suddenly, laughing at how badly that sounded.

"And where would that be?" I snickered, snort giggling, taken in by the absurdity of that statement.

"Where would
what
be?" he glowered down at me.

"Where do you want to put your butt?"

"What on earth are you two talking about?" Ruthie demanded, hearing the tail end, fighting between a look of pure curiosity and
'I don't even want to know'.

"Reeve said he likes to put his butt on things."

"You do?" She blinked at him in utter disbelief, wrinkling her nose, eyeing him like he was officially a weirdo.

He flushed beet red and put his hand over my mouth.

"She wanted to touch my bum," he mock whispered, shaking his head at me, ignoring me when I bit his hand and cursed wildly at him, my voice muffled and undeterminable, "But I explained to her that it was highly inappropriate at the moment, promising to take up the subject with her at a later date."

I growled and tried to bite down, then switched to licking his cupped palm, slobbering all over him, trying to get him to let go.

"Really?" Ruthie sat up a little straighter and leaned forward, surprised, "Dear heart, don't be hasty and turn the tables on him. Men like to do the chasing, after all. Let him come after you."

I pulled Reeve's hand away and glared at them both.

"I wouldn't touch his pale, pasty arse if he was the last man alive!"

"Too late," Reeve taunted quietly, laughing when I growled.

"When did you have a brain transplant?" I barked, exasperated with him.

"What do you mean?" He frowned, staring down at me.

"Don't play dumb with me. Is this a game? Are you fucking with me? Because if you are, I don't appreciate it."

"I'm not. Genevieve, I..."

"Hiya, fellas! Why all the grumpy faces?" Ten asked cheerfully, walking right up to our table, giving everyone a happy wave.

I smiled at him and waved back.

Reeve frowned.

"Oh, Genny," Ten said congenially, "Hey! If you've got a minute, I brought your boyfriend along."

I laughed and tried to get Sawyer and Reeve to scoot out so I could go with.

"She already has enough boyfriends," Thatcher grumbled, "What's she doin' with one we don't know about?"

"Move! Let me out!"

"What boyfriend, brat?" Sawyer grunted, staying in place.

"Oh, for heaven's sake!"

I crawled over Reeve and Sawyer, ignoring their grunts of pain and constant protesting as I made my way across.

"Uncle Ten! Uncle Ten!" a sweet little voice called excitedly, making me grin from ear to ear as he hurried up, Leonard following not far behind.

"Genevieve!" Calvin cried when he saw me, bypassing his uncle for his
girlfriend
.

"Hello, handsome." Chuckling at his enthusiasm, I kneeled down to let him rush in for a hug.

"Are you gonna save me a dance, missy?" He mock frowned at me, hands on his little hips as he pulled back, his tone sweet, yet demanding.

I planted a quick kiss on his scarred cheek, making him giggle and grin up at Ten.

"I bet you couldn't get one, Uncle Ten."

"I'll bet he couldn't either." I grinned, laughing, glancing over at the sour faces of my guys.

"Who's your boyfriend, then?" Sawyer grumbled, giving Leonard a meaningful stare.

"Ugh!" Calvin said disgustedly as he caught Sawyer's drift. "She wouldn't be
his
boyfriend." He waved at Leonard, dismissing the behemoth blonde, "He's with my mom."

"Then who's..."

"That would be me," Calvin beamed proudly, "Uncle Ten didn't want her, even after they danced all crazy at the wedding and she was his date."

"Cal, honey, I wasn't..."

"Sure ya were, but he didn't want you and I did," he stated proudly, pointing to himself. "I nabbed her up!"

The guys all chuckled at Calvin, taken in by the little cutie.

"Didn't I, Genevieve?" he asked excitedly, smiling up at me, eyes shining brightly with excitement, hair adorably ruffled, probably from the cowboy hat Leonard was holding for him.